>>1514615 (OP)
Good small group games I've played with my group recently:
Barotrauma - Work together to crew a sub and survive an underwater shithole full of giant monsters. Decent coordination required, good scalability for player count, I recommend at least four but bots can fill in for most roles if need be.
Duck Game - Absolute peak fast paced death match, tons of maps and weapons keep things fresh and you can download thousands more on the workshop, tons of depth from simple interactions of objects on the map, extreme skill ceiling, supports up to 8 or more if you mod it, I'd say at least 3 is the magic number so if there's a skill imbalance it isn't just the weaker player getting steamrolled
Factorio - Automate resource harvesting and processing to make increasingly advanced technology. Supports virtually infinite players, extreme freedom of action, tons of mods and settings to tweak to your taste
Abiotic Factor - Fun open world survival crafting-like game set in what is basically the Black Mesa facility after the resonance cascade. Play as weak dork scientists who can craft OP items from garbage to escape the facility while monsters and death squads hunt you down. Supports up to 6 players. In early access now, might be good to wait for full release.
Beyond All Reason - Basically a Total Annihilation mod, it's free and supports lots of players, has lots of good QoL features for an RTS. Team games (2v2+) are popular and IMO are a bit more fun and relaxing than the typical RTS 1v1 contest of wills.
AI War - Very large scale RTS game supporting up to 8 players. A unique take on a PvE RTS, the game is a campaign length asymmetric coop battle against a very powerful but predictable enemy. Many expansions released over time add tons of features and content, so there is high replayability, and the difficulty can vary immensely based on your settings. Pretty difficult to learn at first, but once one player knows how things work it's a lot easier to explain.
